Ventard is the new french champion... Dreadfull for french ladies skating. Although it might be justified, she only has two triple whereas the top 5 other girl can land them all. We're back at Bobilier's time and Mae seems to be the new Anne Sophie Calvez, always losing the title.
Annecy should also stop thinking athletes can do high level studies and be champions. To be world champion one day you have to fully commit yourself to the sport. It also end up with situations like Ponsero, the most talented skater we ever had, just not that much interested in fully developping his abilities because his teacher told him there's not only skating in life. That's oviously true but he would have had time after his career to study. Instead, he just stopped without showing his tremendous capacities. The other things is in the end, they master glide which is very good and is what skaters should start first but as they also have to study meanwhile they can't work harder on some other areas like jumps.
It's nice to see a very good gliding girl, it's better if she is able to place higher than 20th at european just because internationals judges do not care and mark PCS as they do : reputation (see Fleur Maxwell all her career long under COP). From Sandra Garde to Anais Ventard, if they can't land the jumps, they didn't/won't go anywhere in internationals competitions.
I hope they do not select her for euro, it took so long to get these spots to throw them away. Gilleron Gory and Meite should go. Silete, we miss you so much.

Annecy should also stop thinking athletes can do high level studies and be champions. To be world champion one day you have to fully commit yourself to the sport. It also end up with situations like Ponsero, the most talented skater we ever had, just not that much interested in fully developping his abilities because his teacher told him there's not only skating in life. That's oviously true but he would have had time after his career to study. Instead, he just stopped without showing his tremendous capacities. The other things is in the end, they master glide which is very good and is what skaters should start first but as they also have to study meanwhile they can't work harder on some other areas like jumps.

I strongly disagree. First of all, we know that some skaters are/were able to combine academic studies and their skating careers, including French skaters such as Alban Preaubert, Nathalie Pechalat. Davis/White and the Shibutanis are all part time students at the University of Michigan. Christina Gao did well on the GP while a student at Harvard.

It's all about finding the right balance for yourself, and if the right balance for Yannick Ponsero was to devote more time to becoming a physiotherapist than to becoming a top level skater, that's his prerogative. I admire him for being able to consider the options and essentially walk away from the one that might have won him more acclaim, but wasn't what he most wanted to do. Not everyone wants to wait until their mid to late twenties (if not later) before beginning university studies. Who are you to tell skaters what choices they should make?

BTW, I am sure that whichever French lady does best at Euros will go to Worlds, and it seems extremely likely that it will be Meite. But for now, congrats to Anais Ventard, Vanessa James and Morgan Cipres!

I strongly disagree. First of all, we know that some skaters are/were able to combine academic studies and their skating careers, including French skaters such as Alban Preaubert, Nathalie Pechalat. Davis/White and the Shibutanis are all part time students at the University of Michigan. Christina Gao did well on the GP while a student at Harvard.

It's all about finding the right balance for yourself, and if the right balance for Yannick Ponsero was to devote more time to becoming a physiotherapist than to becoming a top level skater, that's his prerogative. I admire him for being able to consider the options and essentially walk away from the one that might have won him more acclaim, but wasn't what he most wanted to do. Not everyone wants to wait until their mid to late twenties (if not later) before beginning university studies. Who are you to tell skaters what choices they should make?

Tell me, when Alban Preaubert was a world champion (or even placed higher than 3rd at french nationals...) ? When did he increased his skating abilities after he went to Champigny ?
Also the key point in your sentence is "part time", I'm not really interested in the teams you said (and the only champions I can see thre are Davis White) so I don't really know but when I see part time I think of Kwan : two classes during summer. Sure there's some exceptions, Thomas is the first coming to my mind, but most of them were champions under 6.0, what you had to put in training to become a champion was totally different and if I remember well even the highly praised Wylie took a year off when he won his silver at OG. As for Pechalat, I highly doubt she has a full school schedule.

And if you read what I wrote instead of something else, you would have seen I don't say whether it's a bad choice or a good one but : when Annecy encourage their pupils to pursue high level education (to go on school meanwhile skating in their club is mandatory) while skating it ends up in situations such as Ponsero's. Becoming a world champions under these conditions is a lot harder (and we all know it's already veeery hard). Yes I think it's a bad for french skating overall but I did not say what he should have done. Good for him if he's happy.

The point is, this is a bit contradictory with their goal : raising champions. Or maybe they don't want to raise champions but then why bothering to go to competitions ?
Ventard is a tipycal exemple, why should she go to euro ? Because she can do 3 salchows ? We gave this kind of skaters plenty of opportunities and they were always buried deep down the rankings. In the end, maybe other girls had a bad night today and will miss a great opportunity perform well in internationals competitions in order to keep the spots for next year. Whereas if Meite misses the top ten, we'll be sure to only have one spot again. All the hard work done to come back in our situation this year will be lost. We'll have to start at ground level again.

Oh and it's not because Meite is the FFSG's choice that she's the best.

Tell me, when Alban Preaubert was a world champion ? When did he increased his skating abilities after he went to Champigny ?
Also the key point in your sentence is "part time", I'm not really interested in the teams you said (and the only champions I can see thre are Davis White) so I don't really know but when I see part time I think of Kwan : two classes during summer. Sure there's some exceptions, Thomas is the first coming to my mind, but most of them were champions under 6.0, what you had to put in training to become a champion was totally different and if I remember well even the highly praised Wylie took a year off when he won his silver at OG. As for Pechalat, I highly doubt she has a full school schedule.

The point is, this is a bit contradictory with their goal : raising champions. Or maybe they don't want to raise champions but then why bothering to go to competitions ?
Ventard is a tipycal exemple, why should she go to euro ? Because she can do 3 salchows ? We gave this kind of skaters plenty of opportunities and they were always buried deep down the rankings. In the end, maybe other girls had a bad night today and will miss a great opportunity perform well in internationals competitions in order to keep the spots for next year. Whereas if Meite misses the top ten, we'll be sure to only have one spot again. All the hard work done to come back in our situation this year will be lost. We'll have to start at ground level again.

Preaubert went as far as his talent could take him. Not everyone has the talent to become a world champion, even if they are willing to work hard. Pechalat completed her undergraduate studies years ago. I think she still needs to write her thesis or do some final internship to get her Masters' degree in management. The Shibs have been world medalists. That's a pretty high level. Other high level current/recent skaters whom I believe have attended and in some cases graduated from university include Carolina Kostner, Jeffrey Buttle, Tomas Verner, Takahiko Kozuka and Tessa Virtue. Top ten skaters who were studying parallel to their careers in recent years include Kristoffer Berntsson (electrical engineering), Matthieu Jost (computer engineering), Richard Dornbush, Paul Poirier, Emily Samuelson and Evan Bates. Actually, I think most of the Michigan-based ice dancers are in school - I would guess that they simply don't take a full course load. And I didn't even count all the Russian skaters who do various academic programs in sports education and such.

IIRC, the problem for Ponsero was that he needed to relocate in order to complete his degree. He chose to do so, I guess. He was an inconsistent competitor, which is not really his coaches' fault, and I think by 2010 the FFSG had lost interest in him, having identified Amodio as the future of French skating.

I imagine the goal in Annecy is to train top skaters, but not to make top skaters miserable by cutting off whatever they wish to do off the ice. Not every skater will want to be a full-time athlete.